The phone rings. I check the caller ID to make sure I don't talk to anyone needlessly. (Like pay-at-the-pump gas stations, this is another marvelous innovation for antisocial people like me).

It's my source, telling me that Catherine Ndereba has shattered the world record for the marathon. This comes just a week after a similar call telling me that Naoko Takahashi shattered the world record. Notable? Yeah. This is bigger than my having a three-pizza weekend.

What gives? My source confirms that people had their eyes on the Kenyan the whole way. No one saw her get on a motorscooter. She's legit. And the way she did it, well, let's just say there's more there.

After all, she went out too slow, and kept speeding up. Her last mile or so she blasted at 2:15 pace. In other words, there's a lot more under the hood. And with two women all of a sudden at a sub-2:20 level, my source thinks more superwomen might be on the way. (My source also thinks that NASA faked the Apollo moon landing, so I keep her unnamed so that the thousands of people involved in that particular conspiracy don't track her down to silence her.)

I have a friend (just one, really) who ran at Chicago. He brought food with him in a fannypack, some sort of glop in a tube. He ate it during the race. He swears by it now, since he didn't finish too far behind Ndereba. She didn't do the tube thing. I don't know what her secret is yet, but I am staying near the phone.

In the marathon, the women are suddenly the center of attention, which they perhaps wouldn't be without the records. Throw out the stopwatch, and people would mostly be talking about Chicago's men's race, where rabbit Ben Kimondiu felt good and kept going all the way to a $90,000 victory. Don't get me wrong. They should keep the stopwatch in the marathon. It's cross country where they should throw it out.

2005 World Championships need a home
Berlin and Stuttgart, both in Germany, are the frontrunners to host the 2005 Worlds, which have recently been relinquished by London. The British organizers have been unable to produce the new stadium that they promised. Among the other sites interested in hosting the meet: Sydney, Australia, and Budapest, Hungary.

Cross country update
No. 1 ranked Colorado showed its stuff this weekend at the Rocky Mountain Shootout, as Jorge Torres and Dathan Ritzenhein finished side by side in 24:47 and the Buffs scored a big win. Colorado's women, also ranked No. 1, won handily with Molly Austin covering the 5.8K course in 20:14.

The same day in Maine at the Murray Keatinge Invitational, Stanford's men won, with freshman Ryan Hall finishing first in 24:00. On the women's side, Arizona took top honors behind Tara Chaplin's win in 16:52.

Matt Tegenkamp, the other super-freshman on the circuit, won the Griak Invitational for Wisconsin the week before.

Another new face, Eastern Michigan's Kenyan junior Boaz Cheboiywo, demolished the field at Indiana State's invitational with a 23:38 for 8K (just short of five miles).

Gebrselassie update
Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie won the World title in the half-marathon this weekend, zipping the 13.1 miles in 1:00:03. He beat his teammate, Tesfaye Jifar, by a mere second.

The women's title went to Britain's Paula Radcliffe in 1:06:47, just three seconds off the world record. In the team races, Kenya won the women's honors (U.S. 8th), while Ethiopia took the men's (U.S. 13th).

Geb says he will run his first full marathon next spring at either London or Rotterdam. No word on whether he'll be sucking glop out of a tube.

Jeff Hollobaugh, former managing editor of Track and Field News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached by e-mail at michtrack@aol.com.